Timeless

“Well?”

Biffy shook out a map of the Nile River Valley. “Taking into account topography and allowing water features and territory markers, much as werewolves and vampires do themselves, the plague would have extended like so.” He drew a loose circle on the map with a stick of graphite. “So far as I can tell, the initial extent, here, remained fixed for thousands of years, ever since werewolves were divested of their rule and the plague began.”

Lyall bent over the map, intrigued. “So what has you worried? This all seems to be as the howlers sing it. Ramses, the last pharaoh, who lost the ability to change and became old and toothless because of the God-Breaker Plague.”

“Yes, except sometime after this last report, the one dated 1824, it moved.”

“What! What moved?”

“Well, perhaps not moved. Perhaps expanded is a better word. Look at the more recent reports on the plague BUR got hold of, dated a few decades ago. Admittedly they come out of the Alexandria Hive and one loner wolf who braved the desert out of some kind of religious fervor. But I would say, at a conservative guess, that the God-Breaker Plague has expanded some one hundred miles in the last fifty years.” Biffy drew a second larger circle on his map. “Here. It now includes Siwah and Damanhúr and stretches all the way to the outskirts of Alexandria.”

“What!”

“Something happened five decades ago that caused the plague to start up again.”

“This is not good,” stated Professor Lyall baldly.

“You think our Dubh might have been carrying this information back to us?” wondered Lady Kingair.

“He was sent looking for preternatural mummies. What if he found more than any of us had wagered on?”

“Why be so obsessed with contacting Lady Maccon on the subject?” Lady Kingair seemed to find this point particularly aggravating.

“Well, she is a preternatural,” said Biffy.

“We must send them an aetherogram immediately with this information. Do you have an appointment scheduled with Lady Maccon, Biffy?” asked Lyall.

“Yes, I… How did you know?”

“Because it’s what I would have done in your place. When is it?”

“Tomorrow at sunset.”

“You must relay this information to Lady Maccon.”

“Of course.”

“And you must warn her of… you know…” Lyall gestured with his head at Lady Kingair.

“Yes, that your secret is out, that our pack is about to change. I know.”

“You are still not resigned to the change?” Lyall cocked his head to the side and lowered his voice.

“You will leave me, and you will leave me with a great deal of responsibility.” Biffy looked up at him out of the corner of his eye, pretending further interest in the map of Egypt so as to disguise any sentiment.

“I believe you might have just proven how well placed my faith is in you.”

“Well, gentlemen,” interrupted Lady Kingair, “how about you prove Lord Maccon’s faith and figure out who shot my Beta?”

CHAPTER TWELVE Wherein Alexia and Ivy Meet a Man with a Beard

Lady Alexia Maccon awoke midafternoon. The light was rich and golden, peeking around the edges of the heavy curtains. She checked her husband’s slumbering face, handsome and innocent in sleep. She trailed one fingertip down his fine profile and giggled when he snuffled a little snore at the familiarity. Sometimes she allowed herself to wallow in the sentimentality of knowing that this wonderful man, overbearing, impossible, and werewolf though he might be, was hers. Never in her old days as spinster and social outcast could she have imagined such a thing. She had thought that some kind, unassuming scientist might be persuaded to take her, or some midgrade clerk, but to have landed such a man… her sisters must envy her. Alexia would have envied herself, had that not proved logistically rather complicated. She kissed the tip of her husband’s nose and climbed out of the bed, eager to investigate Egypt in the daylight.

She was not, however, to enjoy the pleasures of such an exploration alone. The gentlemen were still abed, but Mrs. Tunstell, the nursemaid, and the children were all awake and enjoying coffee in the room dedicated as the nursery.

“Mama!” came Prudence’s excited cry upon seeing Lady Maccon in the doorway. She slid down off the chair and toddled over excitedly. Alexia bent to pick her up. Prudence grabbed her mother’s head, one chubby hand to each cheek, and directed her attention at her own intent little face. “Tunstellings! Silly,” she explained. “Eeegypttt!”

Alexia nodded slightly. “I agree with you on all points, my darling.”

Prudence stared seriously into her mother’s brown eyes, as though trying to determine whether Alexia was addressing the matter with due attention to the important details. “Good,” she said at last. “Go go go.”

Mrs. Tunstell stood back politely while Lady Maccon and her child conversed. At this she said, “Alexia, my dear, are you perhaps pondering what I am pondering?”

Alexia replied, without hesitation, “My dear Ivy, I very much doubt it.”

Ivy took no offense, possibly because she did not perceive the insult, only saying, “We were considering a little stroll about the town. Would you be interested in joining us?”

“Oh, indeed. Do you have your Baedeker’s? I need to get to the local aethographor by six o’clock or thereabouts.”

“Oh, Alexia, do you need to transmit something significant? How exciting!”

“Oh, nothing of any material consequence, simply a matter of coordination. You have no objections to us making it one of the objectives of the excursion?”

“Certainly not. Taking the air is so much more enjoyable when one has purpose, don’t you feel? I ordered up a donkey. Would you believe they don’t have perambulators in this part of the world? How do they transport infants in style?”

“Apparently by donkey.”

“That,” stated Ivy most decidedly, “is not style!”

“I thought we could pop Primrose and Percival into those adorable little basket panniers, and Prudence here might like to try to ride.”

“No!” said Prudence.

“Oh, come now, darling,” remonstrated her mother. “You come from a long line of horsewomen, or so I like to believe. You should start while you are young enough to get away with riding astride.”

“Pttttt,” said Prudence.

A polite tap came at the open door and Madame Lefoux stuck her head in. “Ladies”—she tipped her elegant gray top hat—“and Percy,” she added, remembering that one, at least, was a very minor gentleman.

Percy burped at her. Primrose waved her arms about. Prudence nodded politely, as did Alexia and Ivy.

“Madame Lefoux,” said Mrs. Tunstell. “We were about to head out on an exploratory expedition around the metropolis. Would you care to join us?”

“Ah, ladies, I should ordinarily be quite eager, but I am afraid I have my own business to attend to.”

“Ah, well, don’t let us detain you,” said Alexia, quite burning with curiosity as to the nature of Madame Lefoux’s business. Was the Frenchwoman acting for the Order of the Brass Octopus, Countess Nadasdy, or herself? Lady Maccon wished, not for the first time, she had her own team of BUR-style field agents she could set to tail suspicious individuals at will. She looked with consideration at her tiny daughter, who was occupied playing with a curl of Alexia’s hair. Perhaps I should train Prudence in covert operation procedures? With an adopted father like Lord Akeldama, half my work will already be completed. Prudence blinked at her and then stuffed the curl into her mouth. Perhaps not just yet.